This invention relates to a cable clip made of a synthetic resin, which is attachable to a panel by a simple act and, once attached to the panel, can be retained fast in the attached state even when vibration and other impact are accidentally exerted thereon.
Generally, cables for use in electric appliances and particularly in automobiles are laid along and fastened to panels or chassis by means of a multiplicity of cable clips. In the cable clips of this kind, it must be considered to prevent cable clips attached to panels from being accidentally separated from the panels because of an external force such as vibration and impact. One of the conventional cable clips satisfying this requirement is constructed so as to effect the attachment of the engaging portion thereof to two sized fitting holes bored in advance in a given panel and interconnected with each other by utilizing an upper flange, a lower flange and a connecting shank having an oval cross section and serving to join the two flanges to each other. To be more specific, this attachment is accomplished by first passing the lower flange of the engaging portion through the larger of the two interconnected holes bored in the panel thereby placing the connecting shank within the hole, then adjusting the engaging portion so as to permit the direction of the major diameter of the connecting shank to be aligned with the line connecting the centers of the large and small holes, shifting the connecting shank to the small holes through a narrow intermediate path joining the two holes, thereby securing the clip in position under such a condition that the upper and lower flanges of the engaging portion nip the panel and the engaging portion is prevented from being drawn out in the axial direction of the small hole, and subsequently rotating the engaging portion by 90.degree. thereby causing the direction of the major diameter of the connecting shank to intersect perpendicularly the line connecting the centers of the large and small holes, consequently making it impossible for the connecting shank to move through the connecting path, and locking the engaging portion to the smaller of the two holes.
Once the conventional cable clip is attached to the panel as described above, therefore, it avoids shifting its position to the larger hole and remains intact in its present state unless the engaging portion is rotated. As a result, the nipping portion of the cable clip is allowed to continue its function of nipping a cable between itself and the panel. However, when the engaging portion is caused to be rotated by some cause thereby aligning the direction of the major diameter of the connecting shank with the line connecting the centers of the holes, there arises the problem that the engaging portion is shifted to the hole of the larger diameter and automatically slipped off the fitting hole. Especially, when cable clips of this kind are used as means for fastening cables distributed within automobile bodies, it occurs not infrequently that owing to the vibration generaged by the automobile bodies in traveling, the cable clips are caused to be rotated and slip off the fitting holes or the cables nipped by the clips are pulled so much as to rotate the engaging portion with the nipping portion as the lever and eventually slip them off the fitting holes. Improvement for solving this problem, therefore, has been in great demand.